Just stitching...

Tonight while I worked third shift, I took some time to work on a stitchery project. This is "The Joy of Christmas", designed by Gail Pan.  I bought this pattern at the Vermont Quilt Festival last year, and I'm finally getting around to stitching it.  Hopefully I'll have it done soon since its a fairly small and simple project.

I've just downloaded the blogger app for my phone, so far it seems easy to use.  Maybe this will make it easier for me to blog. Fingers crossed... 

February 26

Last night, we had our monthly guild meeting.   We had a man who makes wooden quilting accessories and he talked about the things he makes (quilt racks, ladders, stilettos, seam ripper handles, custom tables for machines) and he sold some of his items, and his wife showed us some of her gorgeous applique quilts.   It wasn't the most exciting meeting in the world, but I never complain when I get to see a trunk show.

I showed the quilt you see in the picture as part of Show & Tell.  I just finished this quilt over the weekend.  I had it mostly finished back before Christmas, but I got sidetracked for a while by other projects.   It is my standard crumb blocks sewn together as a four patch and framed.   This quilt  measures about 60" square and will be going to the Pediatric Oncology Clinic.

Okay, so I've been a very lazy blogger lately.   I have done some quilting projects recently, and I'm going to start sharing things here again (I know I always say that, but this time I mean it!).  If you want more up to date pictures, the best place to see them is on Instagram, you can follow me there if you'd like I'm @Traceyquilts overthere.

This quilt is "Peppermint Sticks" by Terry Atkinson, I can't remember which book it was in.  It's a UFO from about 4 or 5 years ago and I finally quilted and bound it.  This will be going to Wrap A Smile.

Please cross your fingers that I will be able to find this quilt tops and four (or five) other missing quilt tops.  A couple weeks ago, I put this top and the other tops (along with their backings and bindings) in a bag to bring home from the cabin so that I could baste them here at home where I have a tile floor.   In the two weeks since then, we've been sick, had a crazy dance recital week and been otherwise very busy, so I didn't get to basting the tops.  I've spend the last several days tearing both houses apart looking for the bag of these tops&backings, and I can't find them ANYWHERE.  I'm absolutely sick over it.   Included were this quilt (from one of Gayle Bongs books), a scrappy four patch quilt that is going to be a gift for a friend, a pinwheel top destined to be donated, and a twin bed size trip around the world quilt for my son.  There may have also been another donation top in the bag, I'm not sure.   I'm starting to worry than in my recent decluttering I might have thrown them out or something...or maybe I put them in a 'safe place that I won't forget' LOL.   I'm feeling sort of sick to my stomach over this right now.

Pillowcase dresses

My guild's latest community service project is making pillowcase dresses for an organization called Dress A Girl Around The World.  The dresses are simple to make using the pattern found on the organizations webpage, but there are also lots of other cute tutorials out there in blogland for those who like to make something slightly different.  I purchased a beautiful shower curtain (it came from Target, according to the care label) at Goodwill and upcycled that fabric into three pillowcase dresses.  Instead of using purchased bias tape, I chose a fabric from my stash and made my own bias tape.  

These went together very quickly and they were easy to do, even for the non-garment sewer that I am.  I will definitely be making more of these in the near future.

A baby quilt

We have a new baby in my family!  It's a big reason to celebrate, because there hasn't been a baby since my son was born 10 years ago.  Of course now it's time for a new generation to be having the children.  This time, it is my cousin Michael, who has a new baby boy born in February.  The baby's name is Michael Jr.   A couple of weeks ago, we had a "welcome baby" party instead of a shower.  

I made a set of burp cloths with some neat fabrics that I purchased at Joann.  You can find the tutorial here .  I did not add the ribbon as shown in the tutorial because I wanted these to be 'guy friendly' so that Dad would be happy using them.  Basically, you add a fabric rectangle to a prefolded purchased diaper.

 Of course I also had to make a quilt for the baby!  It had to be something hip and modern as well as guy friendly.  It also had to be simple and fast to make because I wanted it finished before the party, and only had a couple of weeks to get it done.  I saw a picture of this quilt on Pinterest, and followed the link to an Etsy shop.  The gal's blog indicated that she was planning to write a tutorial, but it hadn't been posted yet, so I just looked at her picture and guessed.  I have no idea how mine compares size wise with hers, but this ended up being about 54X60".  Kind of big for a baby quilt, but it will be useful for years (hopefully he'll wear it out before he outgrows it!).  Overall, I'm very pleased with how it came out, but I do wish that I took a little more time to add more quilting.  I get a chance to try again though, I've got a plan to make another almost identical quilt out of the leftover fabrics from this one.  I'll share that when I finish (within the next few weeks I plan to get it done).  I'm sorry for such a lousy picture...it was very overcast the morning I finished the quilt, and I couldn't wait to get a better picture because the party was that afternoon!

Next time, I'll share the pillowcase dresses that I recently made.   I might even have more finished by then to show!

Hot Pads and challenge quilts

Today I'm sharing the pictures of some hot pads that I recently made.   I'm tired of small pot holders and hot pads that don't protect my hands or the counter, so I fixed that problem by using two layers of insul-brite and I made them BIG (10" square).  They worked really well, and I used up some scrappy crumb blocks in the process.  I decided to use these as a practice for a new method: finishing the binding completely by machine.  I sewed the binding onto the back and turned it to the front and machine stitched it down instead of by hand.  It worked out okay, not great, but not too bad.  I definitely need to practice it some more.

At the same time I made these guys, I made a table mat for my kitchen counter peninsula.  It is sized for the counter and covers it completely, something like 24X60.  I'll have to get a picture of it for another post.  It works nicely because I can put the mat on the counter than put all the hot dishes/pans right on it without worrying about the counter getting damaged, thanks to the insul-brite inside.

In the meantime, I'm still working on the challenge quilt for my guild.  It's due on the 28th, so I have to really get myself in gear and work hard this weekend.  All I can say at this point is that the challenge fabric is UGLY, and I am cutting it pretty small so it won't look too bad, and using one of Bonnie Hunter's patterns.